Politics & Government

Data Center Subsidies Eyed for Hokkaido, Kyushu Areas

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

Jiji Press

10:54 JST, May 31, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The industry ministry on Tuesday proposed providing subsidies to facilitate the construction of data centers that are crucial to a digital society in Hokkaido Prefecture and the Kyushu region.

Hokkaido and Kyushu are suitable locations for data centers, which consume large amounts of electricity, as the amount of power generated from renewable sources there is large, the ministry said.

The subsidy plan is aimed at promoting the decentralization of data centers in the country as more than 80% of them are currently located in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, a situation that is vulnerable to large-scale natural disasters.

The ministry plans to earmark ¥45.5 billion in data center subsidies over the four years that started last April.

The proposal is part of a final draft of a revision to the country’s semiconductor and digital industry strategy that was adopted in 2021.

The draft calls for tripling sales at companies manufacturing semiconductors in Japan to over ¥15 trillion in 2030 from a decade before. Over ¥10 trillion in additional investment from the public and private sectors is needed over the next decade, the ministry said.